Praise God For His Faithfulness

June 30, 2017

Praise God For His Faithfulness

Search for the Lord and for his strength;

continually seek him.

Psalm 105:4

Psalm 105 celebrates God’s Covenant faithfulness, from Abraham to the Israelites entering into the land of Canaan. As a way of celebrating their heritage with God as they followed God into their future, the Israelites included Psalm 105: 1-15 in their celebration of the Ark of the Covenant arriving in Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 16:8-22).

The first church I served as pastor had a wonderful way of using their heritage to inspire them to faithfulness for their present day mission. Memorials to pastoral and lay leadership were placed throughout the sanctuary. Photographs of church members called into pastoral ministry were prominently displayed in the Narthex. The original church building was a few miles away from their present sanctuary, and on the fifth Sunday of a month, the church would gather in their former sanctuary for worship. In this old church, the pulpit furniture had been crafted by one of their members, and each family had constructed their own pews, which made for an interesting display of varying shapes and sizes of the pews. Every October, Homecoming was celebrated and in alternate years the old church was their gathering place. Then in the week following Homecoming, they had revival services to draw from their heritage fresh inspiration for fulfilling God’s calling on their church.

Not every follower of Jesus has a church that celebrates their heritage leading them into their future, but every follower of Christ has their own personal heritage with God’s faithfulness. Through God's grace we are who we are, and His grace toward us has not been in vain (1 Corinthians 15:10). We praise God for his faithfulness, and we trust him to bring us through tomorrow.

“Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness.

    Let the whole world know what he has done.

Praise the Lord!”

Psalm 105:1,45b

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

Copyright © 2017 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Let All That I Am Praise The Lord

June 29, 2017

Let All That I Am Praise The Lord

O Lord, what a variety of things you have made!

    In wisdom you have made them all.

    The earth is full of your creatures.

Psalm 104:24

As I read Psalm 104, one of my favorite praise songs came to mind. Starry Host, inspired by Isaiah 40:26, praises the wonder of God’s creation.   

                

To whom will you compare Me?

Or who is My equal? say the Holy One,

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens

Who created all these?

He who brings out the starry host,

One by one, and calls them each by name

Because of His great power

And mighty strength

Not one of them is missing

Starry Host recorded by Silers Bald

Copyright: 1998 Silers Bald Music

Down through the ages people have stood in awe of nature. John Muir was one of those people. He explored what is now Yosemite National Park, and urged that the area be preserved as a national treasure because it was such a magnificent display of the beauty of God’s creation. Psalm 104 calls us to take time in life to observe the wonder of God’s creation. That is pretty easy for me. As I walk through my neighborhood, I behold God’s lofty mountain grandeur.

The psalmist is going beyond the initial act of creation. The psalmist wants me to consider that God created . . . and is still creating. God created the very first sun rise and He created the magnificent sunset I saw on a recent evening. God not only created all things, God is proactively caring for His creation. God didn’t just create the first tomato; He is creating the tomatoes I’ll be enjoying in my sandwiches this summer, along with the fresh strawberries, peaches and blueberries that adorn my morning cereal.

The Apostle Paul reached this same conclusion when he wrote of the supremacy of Christ, “He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together” (Colossians 1:17, emphasis mine). What happens when Christ stops holding all creation together? The psalmist answers that in verses 29-30 (NRSV):

“When you hide your face, they are dismayed;

   when you take away their breath, they die

   and return to their dust.

When you send forth your spirit, they are created;

   and you renew the face of the ground.”

If the psalmist had been with me a few weeks ago as I stood atop a crest along the Appalachian Trail, and observed the hawks soaring across the valley below, he would have pointed out that God created those hawks. God also created the air currents that were keeping them aloft; and God created the trees where they nest; and because “the Lord takes pleasure in all he has made” (v. 31b), the Lord is smiling as he watches over His creations playing in the air; and He is smiling as He watches me standing in awe.

“I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.

    I will praise my God to my last breath!

May all my thoughts be pleasing to him,

    for I rejoice in the Lord.

Let all that I am praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord!”

Psalm 104:33-34, 35b

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

Copyright © 2017 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Bless The Lord, O My Soul

June 28, 2017

Bless The Lord, O My Soul

“Bless the Lord, O my soul,

   and all that is within me,

   bless his holy name.”

Psalm 103:1 (NRSV)

Most often I think of God as the one who blesses, or extends favor, affirmation and approval. However, the word bless can also mean: to praise, to glorify, and to call holy. The psalmist blesses God by praising, glorifying and calling God holy because of all that God is, all that God has done and is doing in the life of the psalmist, and all that he believes God will continue to do. (There are some interesting similarities in the construction of God’s attributes between Psalm 103 and Isaiah 40.)

The psalmist is embracing the entire history of God’s people as his own history. Because our “real life is hidden with Christ in God,” we are invited to embrace the many expressions of God’s mercy throughout the Bible as our own experience of God (Colossians 3:3).

I have two thoughts to ponder after reading Psalm 103. First, the Christian ideal is that all of the followers of Christ can write their own psalm of praise, with Psalm 103 as their model. The psalmist not only owned all that God had done in history, but also claimed what God was doing in the present and what he trusted God will do in the future. Second, we remember that authentic praise of God is not in our words, but in the way we lead our lives.

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good;

   and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

   and to walk humbly with your God?”

Micah 6:8 (NRSV)

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

Copyright © 2017 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Lift Our Eyes To Heaven

June 27, 2017

Lift Our Eyes To Heaven

The children of your people

    will live in security.

Their children’s children

    will thrive in your presence.

Psalm 102:28

I was driving through the countryside recently and saw the most beautiful willow tree. Whenever I see a willow tree I recall Psalm 137:

By the rivers of Babylon—

   there we sat down and there we wept

   when we remembered Zion.

On the willows there

   we hung up our harps.

For there our captors

   asked us for songs,

and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,

   ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’

Psalm 137:1-3 NRSV

Hence the common name for the tree, weeping willow. Psalm 137 laments Israel’s Babylonian captivity, as does today’s reading of Psalm 102. Prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, in what today is known as the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, was a part of the oral history of Israel. The exile to slavery of Israel necessitated writing their history so that it would not be lost. Some of the first words written were, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This account of creation from Genesis 1 reminded the Israelites that the LORD was the God of Order. Those were comforting words in the midst of the chaos and confusion of their captivity.

The psalmist in Psalm 102 confesses Israel is overwhelmed by her troubles, but he doesn’t focus only on their problems. He extols the virtues, the character of God, and concludes, “The children of your people will live in security. Their children’s children will thrive in your presence” (Psalm 102:28).

The great temptation, when we encounter the pain and difficulties of life, is to focus on our troubles. Psalm 102 is a reminder that, while we do not deny our pain, we can chose to lift our eyes to heaven and find comfort and strength in the eternal mercy and goodness of God, our Father.

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

Copyright © 2017 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.